A screenshot of the new PTV app.
Public Transport Victoria is urging passengers to give their new iPhone app another go, releasing a public statement saying technical issues with the app were being ironed out.
PTV’s new iPhone app, a major redesign of the old Metlink app, went live yesterday.
The change was met with widespread disapproval, with users branding the new app flawed and unintuitive.
The app was intended to offer user-friendly features such as access to interactive maps, real-time tram information and save user’s favourite stops and stations.
Reviews of the app were scathing on the Apple iTunes store, with more than 900 iPhone users venting their frustrations online by Friday afternoon.
“Why on earth did you have to completely change an app that worked well?” user BradAlli posted. “Seemed all helpful features are gone, no full timetable, only the next few times available. You should be ashamed of yourselves. Better change it quick ‘cos it’s almost completely useless.”
Griffiths_r posted: “This new app makes me feel stupid! All I want to know is when my train leaves – New app is not intuitive at all”.
Daniel Bradby, a director of the company, jTribe, which designed the PTV iPhone app, said his organisation had provided PTV with a bug-free product when it handed the app over in December. But he claimed PTV had made its own changes to the app in the past four months.
“It’s out of our hands now and we don’t have the control to make any changes or fix it. We’re disappointed with how it has come out,” Mr Bradby said.
A statement posted on PTVs website today stated that the app: “experienced technical difficulties due to a high number of downloads. This caused issues for many of the new features’’.
“We’re currently working on these technical issues. If you had difficulty using the app on Thursday 19 April, we’re encouraging you to give it another go as we get the app back up and running.”